By Kumbirai Mafunda
A Zimbabwean school teacher has been hauled to appear before a disciplinary hearing to answer to misconduct charges after he was accused of denouncing President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling ZANU PF party and criticising one of his allies for causing untold suffering among citizens.
Stephen Mangoma, a teacher at Mateta (Rujeko) High School in Gokwe, Midlands province will on Wednesday 12 June 2019 appear before a disciplinary committee chaired by Douglas Chibvongodze, the school headmaster after he was accused of unbecoming behaviour or indecorous behaviour in breach of section 44(2)(a) of the Public Service Regulations.
According to an outline of the charge sheet, Mangoma on 1 March 2019 allegedly acted in a manner likely to bring the Public Service into disrespect or disrepute by scolding Primary and Secondary Education Minister and Gokwe-Sengwa constituency legislator Hon. Paul Mavima, whom he encountered in bottle store at Mateta 2 Business Centre known as Gazaland in Gokwe and whom he confronted after accusing him of causing the suffering he was enduring together with other people in the country.
Mangoma allegedly told Hon. Mavima that he loathed the legislator’s ZANU PF party and was refrained from further confronting him by the Primary and Secondary Education Minister’s aides, who assaulted him before leaving the bottle store.
The school teacher was later arrested by Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers on 2 March 2019 on the basis that he had scolded Hon. Mavima and was detained at Gokwe Police Station until he was released on 4 March 2019 after he paid an admission of guilty fine amounting to $20.